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The Eaton Centre says its new Christmas tree is “art” — but is it Christmas?

A new 15-metre Christmas tree was unveiled at the downtown mall Thursday to kick off the Christmas season.

But walking through the Eaton Centre you had to wonder, what the hell happened to a good old-fashioned Christmas tree? No branches, no needles, no green. It’s a treeless tree, an Oh No Tannenbaum.

The press release announcing the event had billed the tree (and you really have to use that term loosely) as “awe-inspiring”. What they meant to say obviously was it is a giant metal pole with LED lights strung around it like a maypole.

Think big, closed, bright pink umbrella and you’ll get an idea of what it looks like.

A colleague of mine saw a picture of it, grimaced and said, “That’s not a Christmas tree. It looks like an upside down, pink ice cream cone.”

If you squint really hard, it kind of looks like a Christmas tree — if they came from outer space.

The thing looks like something Lady Gaga would put up in her living room.

Meredith Vlitas, senior marketing director for the Eaton Centre, stressed it is a “one of a kind tree.”

“There is no other tree like it,” Vlitas said Friday.

Ain’t that the truth.

Much of the inspiration for the tree came from the giant aluminum and LED reindeer unveiled in the Eaton Centre last Christmas.

“We had such fantastic feedback to the reindeer, what we really wanted to do was have a Christmas tree that integrated visually with the reindeer so hence the aluminum and the LED lights and the very bright, warm vibrant colours,” Vlitas said.

She admitted they are using some non-traditional Christmas colours including purples, oranges and pink.

Call me a traditionalist but I’m not fan of a colour-blind Christmas, so I ask, what’s wrong with red and green?

“It would have clashed with the colour scheme that are on the reindeer,” she said.

Ah, yes, it is a fashionable mall (and I’m not that fashionable).

At this point I mention the tree looks like something from outer space.

“At the end of the day I guess it is art so it is certainly open to interpretation,” Vlitas responded.

She said they’ve had lots of feedback on the treeless tree so far.

“Obviously there are people who like a traditional Christmas tree,” she said. “We all agree a traditional Christmas tree and decor is beautiful but we wanted to do something really unique and special.”

The Eaton Centre wants to know what you think of the recently-lit tree.

“We certainly want to hear the feedback and sort of see how the tree evolves and determine how we move forward from there,” Vlitas said.

And what happened to the old 12-metre tree with a rotating base?

“It’s gone but it is not forgotten,” Vlitas said.

No doubt the thousands of people that go through the Eaton Centre this Christmas season will have a tough time forgetting this new “Christmas tree.”

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